social influence Flashcards
what is internalisation?
- a change in private as well as public opinion/ behaviour
- occurs when a person genuinely accepts the group norms
- persists even in absence of group members
what is identification?
- publicly change opinion/behaviour may not privately agree
* act in the same way as the group because you want to be apart of it
what is compliance?
- going along with others in public
* temporary, usually stops as soon as group pressure stops
What is informational social influence (ISI)?
- need to be right
* agree with the opinion of the majority or person you believe is most likely to be correct
what is normative social influence (NSI)?
- need to be liked
* agree with the opinion of the majority because we want to be accepted
what is the research support for ISI?
- Lucas et al. asked students to give answers to mathematical problems that were easy or more difficult
- greater conformity to incorrect answers when they were more difficult
- this shows that people conform in situations where they feel they don’t know the answer which is predicted by the ISI explanation
what are the individual differences in NSI?
- Some research shows that NSI doesn’t affect everyone’s behaviour in the same way
- people who are less concerned about being liked are less affected by NSI
- this shows that desire to be liked underlies conformity for some people more than others
what was the procedure of Asch’s study?
•tested conformity by asking participants to match a standard line to it’s comparison
•each participant was tested individually in a group of
6-8 confederates
•all confederates were instructed to give the wrong answer
what were the findings of Asch’s study?
- participants gave the wrong answer 36.8 percent of the time
- most participants said they conformed to avoid rejection (NSI)
What were the three variations Asch further investigated and the results?
- group size: addition of further confederates made little difference, suggests that a small majority isn’t sufficient for influence to be exerted
- unanimity: confederate who disagreed with the others introduced which led to reduced conformity, suggests that the influence of the majority depends on the group being unanimous
- task difficulty: increased difficulty increased conformity, suggests that ISI has a greater affect when test is harder
How is Asch’s research a child of its time?
- Repeats of Asch’s study had less conformity
- society has changed since the study took place
- this is a limitation of his study because results can’t be applied to today
How does the artificial situation and task of Asch’s study affect his findings?
- participants knew they were in a research study and demand characteristics could have affected the
- groups don’t resemble what everyday life is like
- this is a limitation because findings cannot be generalised to everyday situations (lack of external validity)
Why is there limited application of findings for Asch’s study?
- only American men where tested, United States is an individualist culture so less likely to conform and men are also less likely to conform than women
- conformity levels are sometimes higher than Asch found, his findings can only be applied to American men
What is the procedure of Zimbardo’s study?
- set up a mock prison at Stanford University
- students who passed psychological testing were randomly assigned guard of prisoner
- prisoners had strict daily routines and guards had their own uniform, were given complete power over prisoners
What were the findings of Zimbardo’s study?
- within two days prisoners rebelled against the harsh conditions, guards harassed prisoners
- after the rebellion prisoners were subdued and depressed
- guards became more brutal and enjoyed the power they had been given
